1000 Cranes? What Was I Thinking?

When I started my 1000 crane quilt project I was well aware that the undertaking was insane and that it was going to be a lot of work. Then I breezed through my first 100 in about 3 months and I felt like I was going to be ok and I got a false sense of security. Fast forward 10 months and I have only have 148. So that means that in over 3x the amount of time I only finished half the amount of cranes I did in those first 3 months. And to make it worse, I went to here and checked how many days I have until my target completion day and found there's less than ... Read More

Free Pattern Friday – Origami Crane

I've been slowly moving along with my 1000 crane quilt. I've been trying to dedicate a bit of time every day to stitching them, I really keep to be finishing them at a more steady rate if I have any hope of finishing them by my 2018 goal. I've gotten a huge amount of interest and support for my project on Instgram and I've had multiple requests for the pattern. I've emailed it to a few people but I figured I would post it here for anyone who wants a copy. The crane is about 2" high and 2.5" wide and fits on a 1.5" hexagon, but you can scale it to any size ... Read More

Inches Stitchalong – Square Four

For the past few years I've been a contributor at &stitches and I am so grateful to have been apart of such an amazing group of stitchy people. The decision was made to end the blog but we decided to go forward with a yearlong stitch along that was already planned. Every few weeks one of us will be sharing a prompt for stitching a 1" square. Check out the schedule (and download a template) here, and join along with us. First up was Carina, next was Julie, and you can see Nicole's over on Instagram. And now here's my prompt for you - RAINBOW! I drew 17 ... Read More

March TSNEM – Watercolor Tinted Embroidery

Yes, I'm aware that March has passed but let's not talk about that. The March theme for TSNEM (try something new every month, read more about it here. was painting. This was a difficult one for me to come up with a project for because I've done tried to many painting techniques in art classes throughout the years. You can see some of them here where I showed off illustration projects I've done. I decided to try out using watercolor paint to add color to an embroidery. I was Googling around for tips and the first thing I came across was a post from my friend ... Read More

1000 Crane Quilt – Where I’m At

It's been a long time since I've updated about the 1000 Crane Quilt. I've slowly been working on it, but it definitely has slowed down a lot. I feel like I made such good progress in the first few months, but then with Christmas gift making and my increased machine sewing, I just haven't been making very many of these. I counted them up and was pretty discouraged to see that since my last update in August, I've only finished 22 hexagons. (Please note: affiliate links are indicated by an asterisk*.) I do have more finished embroideries than that, but I ... Read More

Treasure Map Embroidery – One Thimble Issue 10

(Please note, this post contains affiliate links as indicated by an asterisk.*) I have a new pattern in the newest issue of One Thimble magazine* - a treasure map embroidery. I previously worked with Jen last year for issue 8, when I made a cactus hexie wall art pattern Jen does such a great job putting together a great selections of patterns, articles, and tutorials. This issue was a really fun one and I loved creating the embroidery pattern for it. The pattern is a combination of stem stitch and back stitch, but the whole thing can be done with back stitch if ... Read More

Stitch Love: A One Year Celebration! With Free Embroidery Patterns

Please note: This post contains affiliate links as indicated by an asterisk.* One year ago today Mollie from Wild Olive had the book Stitch Love: Sweet Creatures Big & Small: Cute Kitties and Cows and Cubs and More...and a Yeti* released. I reviewed the book and made an adorable whale purse. I also participated in the Stitch Love Valentine's blog hop last year and the Stitch Love-Along. I am very lucky to call Mollie a friend and was so excited when she asked if I wanted to stitch up some new free patterns to go along with her book's one year anniversary. ... Read More

Project Starters Anonymous – Free Pattern

Kristy from Simply this Life started Project Starters Anonymous as a hashtag on Instagram and I absolutely love it. I enthusiastically joined along because I am the worst about starting new projects before finishing others (need proof? Check out my current UFO list...) Some people have started joining in and this is my official invitation for you to join Project Starters Anonymous. Post on Instagram with the hashtag #projectstartersanonymous when you start something new. And I've also put together a few embroidery patterns that you can stitch (because I assume ... Read More